The One That Got Away
by Raych
Summary: Brooke and Lucas share a moment at his wedding


**Song is Katy Perry The One That Got Away. Just a short one shot of Brooke and Lucas at his wedding to Peyton.**

"Am I forgiven for inviting Julian?" She looked up at the sound of his voice. In response she just nodded, truth was although Julian being here with that skanky actress hurt her the whole day would have been unbearable if she didn't have that to focus on. She hadn't been prepared for quite how much it would hurt. He was married. She hadn't been prepared for the wave of emotion that washed over her as they stood at the altar. Somehow it had hurt less when it was Lindsey, maybe because she wasn't stood right there at the altar with him, just not in the position she had once imagined she'd be. For a minute he looked straight at her when he said part of his vows and for that minute she imagined it was her. It was crazy, she and Lucas had been apart for so long. He was destined to be with Peyton, her best friend, the woman he had just married who was pregnant with his child. She, well she wasn't quite sure what she felt for Julian she hesitated to say love and yet that was maybe the closest thing to describe what it was and yet for some reason she was consumed by thoughts of what could have been, by memories of the plans they had made. "I really am sorry Brooke, I didn't think he'd bring someone given how things are with the two of you. I thought he'd see this as the opportunity to make things work that I meant it as." She sighed.

"It doesn't matter Lucas. Don't spend the happiest day of your life worrying about me."

"I always worry about you, I love you Brooke." She swallowed down the tears that threatened as she then remembered all the other 'I love yous' they'd shared and all the times he was meant to care and meant to worry and never seemed to. "Especially this past year after Angie and..." His words went unsaid but she knew exactly what he meant. They'd never discussed her attack and Brooke wondered if Peyton had told him.

"Well you don't need to. I'm fine."

"But you look so unhappy." She sighed again wondering what exactly the appropriate response to that was. It wasn't the best thing to say that she was the tiniest bit jealous that Peyton had everything Brooke had once dreamed of having, and in the abstract the family Brooke still dreamed of having. A dream that seemed to constantly move further and further away from her.

"Of course I'm not unhappy, two of the people I love most in the world got married today, and they'll be having a beautiful baby soon. How could anyone be unhappy." Maybe it was because she knew how she felt inside but her words sounded so unconvincing.

"Dance with me." It was less of a question and more of an instruction and she looked up at him, he looked so handsome today. So like she had always thought he would. She nodded her head unable to come up with a suitable reason not to. He held his hand out to her and she took it. As she stood she saw Peyton's warm smile at the two of them and tried her best to smile back. He wrapped his arms around her and she tried to keep herself from relaxing into them.

_Summer after high school when we first met  
>We make out in your Mustang to Radiohead<br>And on my 18th Birthday  
>We got matching tattoos<em>

She took a shaky breath as she listened to the words of the song, the words of the Mustang and the matching tattoos made it seem so like it was made for them. But then again listening to Radiohead was more his and Peyton's style than theirs. Then again maybe he'd had Radiohead on his car and she'd not even known.

_Used to steal your parents' liquor  
>And climb to the roof<br>Talk about our future  
>like we had a clue<br>Never planned that one day  
>I'd be losing you<em>

_In another life  
>I would be your girl<br>We'd keep all our promises  
>Be us against the world<em>

She closed her eyes tight and laid her head against his shoulder in an effort to keep him from seeing her tears as she remembered all the plans they'd once made. Their time at Rachel's cabin had been the first time in her life that she planned a future. The first time she'd considered that one day she could truly have a family. The plans they'd made about their future back then had seemed so achievable. She'd not given rise to the thought of what would have happened if she hadn't stepped aside for so long and yet she was assailed by exactly those thoughts now.

_In another life  
>I would make you stay<br>So I don't have to say  
>You were the one that got away<br>The one that got away  
><em>

He kept his eyes on the top of her head unwilling to look over at Peyton as he danced with her best friend and thought the things he was thinking. While Angie had been with Brooke and they'd spent time together he'd had fleeting thoughts of what their lives could have been like if he'd have found the words all those years ago to make her stay with him. But once he'd made the decision to be with Peyton he'd forgotten all about such thoughts. Except seeing Brooke walking down the aisle towards him. For a minute he'd imagined her in a white dress coming towards him. He imagined what she'd look like as a bride and he knew in his heart she would look beautiful, beyond beautiful absolutely stunning. As he recited his vows for a moment his eyes strayed from Peyton to Brooke and he remembered a time when he thought he would be marrying her instead. He hated the fact she looked so miserable on his wedding day and he hated even more that it was his fault. His fault for inviting Julian and not making it clear that it was for Brooke's benefit. Now the two of them were locked in some stupid war with one another trying to make one another jealous. He had always wanted to make Brooke happy, and he realised a long time ago that he wasn't the one to do that for her. He never had been. It was why she had left him, he wasn't ever good enough for her.

_I was June and you were my Johnny Cash  
>Never one without the other we made a pact<br>Sometimes when I miss you  
>I put those records on<br>_

She tried not to think about the last time they had danced together, it had been so long ago and then just like now it felt like she had to cling on to it, memorise every second because it would not come again. Before that day she had thought she would be with him forever, that he would be her present and her future, instead he became merely her past.

_Someone said you had your tattoo removed  
>Saw you downtown singing the Blues<br>Its time to face the music  
>I'm no longer your muse<br>_

She almost laughed at the song words, she knew it had been a bone of contention when Peyton first moved in with him that he still had the tattoo that matched hers. A constant reminder that Peyton was in some ways not his first. Brooke thought it less important where someone had been and more important where they were now. And now he was her husband so did it really matter that he had a past. It wasn't like Peyton hadn't had boyfriends before Lucas, that she'd been or a virgin or not been in love before. No Peyton had been in love with Jake at one point. It frustrated Brooke to no end that 'Ravens' had become a love letter to Peyton given that when Lucas first began writing it he was still with her. A further sign if ever one was needed that Peyton had always had his heart. Enhanced more by the fact he'd suffered writer's block until Peyton came back to Tree Hill. Everything in his life seemed defined by Peyton. She'd known that then and she knew it now, but it hurt that their past could be so easily forgotten or rewritten when once they had meant the world to one another.

_And in another life  
>I would be your girl<br>We keep all our promises  
>Be us against the world<br>_

She felt the tears build up behind her eyes and prayed desperately that she could stop them falling. She tried not to think of this life that could have been hers if only she had not walked away, if she had not given up. But the nagging persistent thorn in her side is if she would have become Lindsey, so wrapped up in what Lucas had in his heart that she was unable to enjoy the life they had together. If she hadn't left then maybe she would only have been prolonging the inevitable.

_In another life  
>I would make you stay<br>So I don't have to say  
>You were the one that got away<br>The one that got away_

He tried to refocus his mind, to remind himself that today he had married the woman he had been obsessed with for almost all of his life. The one he'd written books about and lusted over and dreamed of for longer than he wanted to remember. The woman who was pregnant with his child. Instead dancing with Brooke to what was possibly the worst song for them to dance to in the world he couldn't think of anything more than the brunette. If she would just look up at him and smile, joke and laugh like Brooke always did then he would forget it all because she would think him the crazy fool he was for having such thoughts. Thoughts about what life would have been if he'd known the words that would have stopped her walking out of his life. The thought that it would have been her that he married, that even at nineteen if she had been the one he proposed to she would have said yes. Which then led to thoughts of the night they spent together in New York. A power couple with three children. He smiled softly thinking of their plan. For him Brooke Davis would always by the one who got away.

_All this money can't buy me a time machine  
>Can't replace you with a million rings<br>I shoulda told you what you meant to me  
>Cause now I pay the price<br>_

She'd had so many chances to just say something to him, when they had been with Angie and they had looked like a family she could have told him the truth then, in New York instead of softly responding to her mother that Lucas Scott was the one boy she would have lost it for she should have told him that he was the boy she would give it all up for. She felt his grip tighten on her a little and she tilted her head up to look at him, it took a minute for him to look down into her eyes. She noticed the tears in his eyes that mirrored her own. For her Lucas Scott would always be the one that got away.

_In another life  
>I would be your girl<br>We keep all our promises  
>Be us against the world<em>

In a different life, in a different world Brooke Davis wouldn't have walked out Lucas Scott's door. Lucas Scott would have had the words to make Brooke Davis stay. Brooke Davis and Lucas Scott would have chased their dreams at opposite ends of the country only to realise they couldn't be apart. They would have married at age nineteen, they would have started a family after Lucas finished college. In another life Brooke Davis would have been Lucas Scott's girl.


End file.
